Ambrosia Maple

Much like Spalted Maple and other forms of figured maple, Ambrosia Maple is technically not a specific species of Maple, but rather a general description of any type of Maple that has been infested by ambrosia beetles. The beetles bore into the tree, and with it bring fungus that discolors the wood.

Ambrosia Maple

Ambrosia Maple (turned)

Ambrosia Maple is considered a decorative feature which gives the wood additional character, and is sometimes available for purchase. A special thanks to Mike Leigher for providing the wood sample of this wood species.

10 Comments

I build mountain dulcimers and ambrosia soft maple is one of my favorite top woods. Most buyers do not want the worm hole covered, I just finish over them with amber shellac and it actually makes them more visible
Bill Robison

Look up S G Art Turning. He is in Canada and has some beautiful pieces, including a couple of sinks. He is very fortunate to have a friend that has land and gives him beautiful wood to turn. Love watching you turners!!

I just got a plank of ambrosia maple with some curly to it. It is really pretty that I will use for a guitar top but it has worm holes. How did you fill in your worm holes? I figure you just need to just keep filling it with lacquer until they fill.

Like the other poster epoxy works but another approach is to rub some saw dust into the holes and put a drop of thin CA (super) glue on it when it is set up sand it lightly and drop a thicker CA glue on it. I have seen luthiers fill knots by putting CA on the knot and rubbing it with sandpaper while wet too but watch out for gluing your finger to the sandpaper. With epoxy you can make a paste from saw dust from the same wood and epoxy then spatula it in then sand and reseal. From this you will find a way that you like.

There are quite a few holes to be inlaying them all. What most Luthiers do is just sand up some dust and put a drop of CA glue on it. Then sand and finish. The dust is of the original wood and matches quite nicely normally but with ambrosia maple the fungal discoloring (spalting) keeps the hole location visible. What I do is fill with a natural filler and dab a marker on it then smear with alcohol till it looks natural only without the hole.